Prompt 6: Brown

""Girl Power" used to send a message to little girls that they could be anything they wanted to be. Now, it's more of a marketing ploy, as Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown explain to Rene Syler."





As I’ve realized being in a classroom with a wide variety of students that all have different parts that make them the way they are. With that you need to be aware that these students have sociocultural and linguistic differences. The classroom teacher is very aware of this and to accommodate she always reminds the students that it’s not about how much money you have, the clothes you wear, or where you live but for everyone to get along and understand each other. Constantly she puts the class into groups of opposites; she never puts the kids with their friends. She usually gives them an assignment that they need to work together with for a good grade, by the children interacting they no longer think about who they are working with but that they are working together. When the assignment is completed in a good fashion the teacher gives those groups who tried their hardest and finished a treat. It’s always the same cookies they are vanilla and chocolate mixed, which she makes sure the students know. ‘It doesn’t matter what color you are, where you are from, we are a family”. The group assignments always help the students work hard for each other and encourage one another, they want their group member to do well.
The theorist I connected this too was Lyn Mikel Brown. Brown argued about what is the typical stereotype of what certain people live their lives. In his example Brown talks about when people talk about teenage girls they are talking about the white, middle class, female and her experiences. Not all teenage girls go through the same experience and are classified based on that. I related Brown to my service learning because I feel that by the teacher not classifying these children into one group and mixing them up away from their friends it points that the stereotype is wrong. Not all fourth grade boys go through the same experiences, and for this teacher to mix them into groups she creates communication of the classmates to work in their classroom. This teacher does however recognize the differences in her students but does not make that a factor in who can be partnered with whom in a group, these children act the way they do based on what they have seen or done which makes them who they are.

Promt 5: Johnson

Parent involvement is key when students are in school, especially at a younger age most students are always telling their parents if they did well on something. In my classroom my teacher enhances the parent involvement and makes sure that after every quiz or test she sends home a note to each parent. Whether it’s good or bad she sends it so that the parents will see how their child is doing, when they improve she makes note or if they seem to be dropping she makes note of that too. My teacher has told me multiple times about how she wants her students to excel and she feels that all of them will, but she believes in the parents for support.

Although I’ve seen only a couple notes come back from the parents this teacher is persistent to improve all her students’ grades. Also my teacher will not fail, every month she sets up meetings or even over the phone talks so that she can speak to the parents about their child and what they may need help with or just to tell them how well they are doing. She explained to me how it never works out because the parents are too busy, which she understands but she wishes there was more communication.
This leads me too Johnson. Johnson talks about the silence and how those people who are silent and not doing anything are not helping the problem. Although I’m not talking about race I feel privilege is extremely evident. The students in this school don’t have the privilege of their parents being able to come into meetings or talking on the phone to their teacher. The kids in the classroom have said it a hundred times, Mrs. ______ my parents are working or they just can’t come in. Most of these student’s parents don’t have time to meet with a teacher, instead they rely on the word of their child. With silence of the student, parent, and teacher it causes for problems for the student, in this case a lower grade.

Although Johnson mainly talks about race and the privilege of the White over Black or Hispanic I see the privilege these students don’t have, and due to that silence it seems to never prevail. My teacher is trying and she acknowledges that there is in fact a problem; she is trying to speak about what is happening. Although it may take time or not even work, the fact that she is making the effort to say “This isn’t right” is better than nothing at all.

Prompt 4: Delpit

Becoming a teacher requires you to be aware of the diverse cultural groups that will be in your classroom. I think that each person’s cultural background and experiences can help them greatly in any environment. My personal history or sociocultural characteristics intersected with the students with its ups and downs in the classroom. The main thing I needed to take into consideration is that the way I do something isn't necessarily the only way. I needed to step back and observe the students before I jumped into it. Each person has different cultural backgrounds; we are all different when noticing that it's truly an advantage. By understanding the differences I feel it could help you as a teacher, especially in this classroom. There are so many different children in the classroom that you may assume the student know something when they don't. The misconceptions that I’ve been confronted with during this experience are assuming. I always think either they know what I'm looking for or they don't without being direct. I need to not only assume but ask questions.
I feel as though Lisa Delpit relates greatly to being a teacher. Delpit explains about the culture of power and how you need to be aware as a teacher of that. If a student comes into your class and starts sharpening a pencil as your talking they may not understand the codes of power. In other words you need to let them know they should not be doing that at that particular time. Without the student being aware, they will never know. This deal greatly with a classroom, not everyone is the same which in most cases they don't know the codes. This leads to the child giving up because they are lost. Delpit also says how without being told explicitly the "rules" gaining power becomes almost impossible. If the student is unaware of any of the codes they realize it, the teacher however may not which is a problem. With the simplicity of a teacher to explain the codes of power for his/her students will help the students as well. No longer will they be clueless and give up, but they will understand. This is why I feel Delpit truly understands what can happen to a group of individuals on different levels.

Prompt 3

In the classroom I visit my teacher tends to a variety of students who have different linguistic, ethnic, and sociocultural characteristics. She uses different techniques that she incorporates in her teaching to accommodate those students that do not share similar traits. At the beginning of each class the rules or "codes" are stated and continue to be read if they are broken. For memorization of all the students the teacher uses part of the word, if they are able to finish the sentence of that rule they receive a ticket. This ticket is used to receive prizes and cookies if the class continues to do well. I see every time I'm there the students strive for tickets for acknowledgment of the teacher and the other students when they carry one. This class is very social and shows their emotions of frustration and excitement on their sleeve helping the teacher notice any students who may need help or just a "Great Job!". This particular teacher makes sure each student realizes the codes of the classroom; if something is being done wrong she stops and looks at the rules located at the front board. Another way this teacher uses techniques is by putting the student on the spot. When learning for example spelling the teach has all the students repeat the word as well as spelling it aloud. She then goes back and randomly picks students to do the same, only they do it by themselves. She makes sure that each student understands before moving along. One example is when the students are ready a story aloud. Each sentence they read with a simple error she stops them and has the student read that sentence over again until they have mastered it. I feel to an extent that these are effective methods in making sure each student is comfortable with what they are learning. Although this does embarrass some students, this teacher embraces their errors letting them know that "This is what learning is all about, you mess up but slowly you will get it". Within time each student seems to acknowledge and understand what they had trouble with. These teaching methods help students with different linguistic, ethnic, and sociocultural characteristics because she is so direct with them. They are informed from day one to the last day the rules of the classroom and how to master situation they go through when learning is hard.

Prompt 2: Goldenberg

The elementary school that I go to has a strongly segregated group of students. After having looked on info works it shows that 71% of the students are Hispanic, 14% are African American, 10% are White, and 4% are Asian. I notice these percentages more and more as I'm in the classroom and being much more observant. Today I could the students in my particular class, there was 1 White child, and 2 Asian children, 1 Black student, and the rest were Hispanic. This shows how greatly segregated it is and how a teacher needs to cultivate different teaching methods for all children with different cultural background.
Everyday that I am tutoring I love hearing the kids talk in different languages. Although I only took three years in Spanish in high school I do still remember some of the words. The children usually talk to each other in their first language and always will laugh because they think teachers and me as well have no idea what they are saying. I found it extremely interesting when the teacher told everyone to please be quiet, everyone giggled as people disobeyed and talked behind her back. She looked around and heard two kids speaking in Spanish, as if she didn't know what they said they began cracking some jokes about her. The teacher spoke back in Spanish and apparently knew what they were saying, it was funny because I haven't heard them say joke about her, and she got them good! I feel as though teachers like this one, need to not discourage their students’ first language but to teach them other as well. The students in this particular class bring joy to their culture, they embrace it and it encourages their teacher to learn more about it.
Claude Goldenberg talks about effective teachers and what they need to do for students when English may not be their primary language; this is exactly what I experienced today. The teacher informed me that a student came here from China, I have no idea she couldn't speak English well so I was having a conversation with her as she just starred. I was confused and finally said "Do you understand?” she quickly nodded her head to me and looked almost ashamed. Goldenberg says how we need to look beyond the genetic teaching and to work with your students at their level. Of course this young girl was not at the level of the class yet so I went over words with her, I was absolutely amazed at how fast she caught on. He says how “Teaching students to read in their first language promotes high levels of reading achievement in English". He was absolutely right in that as I pointed to a new word she spelled out the letters and 80% of the time she was saying the work in English. This student was extremely bright and by including cooperative learning she promoted the other students to build their curiosity and to help as well. By the end of the class I had two students as well as myself helping this child learn English, as Goldenberg explains that students will benefit from challenging, motivating, and active engagement it clearly showed that she did. It wasn't a task for her but she was excited and more motivated than ever to hear encouragement from the students in the class.

Prompt 1: Shor

Last Thursday was my first day being a volunteer at an elementary school. As I found a small tight parking spot after fifteen minutes I was extremely relieved that I had left much earlier than I anticipated. As I was walking around the building to the large blue doors I noticed how crammed the school was. On a tiny area with no parking whatsoever I saw many teachers and parents walking from blocks away. The school was much different than I thought, it was quite larger than any elementary school I had been to, especially in comparison to mine as a kid; one story small school.

As I entered the building I immediately saw many children, without hesitation they began to question who I was. I didn't expect any of the kids to come up to me but to my surprise they were very comfortable and because of that I immediately felt the same. The classroom in which I volunteered was covered in posters, rules, and subjects. At the beginning of each class the poster that read "Rules" was repeated. There was not one space of the wall left over with half of the classroom filled with books and every table cluttered. Both the students and the teacher seemed very welcoming and extremely nice. It was definitely a new feeling hearing the children call me Ms. Alysa and ask for help if their teacher was too busy. I was surprised that there were only ten children in the class, although some of the kids were absent I was expecting at least twenty to twenty five.

One important aspect in the school I visited was NECAPP scores and it seemed to me that they would teach anyway possible to raise them. The teacher was upset about the teaching method but was in a bind, she taught straight from the book without using any of her own words. She was reading a script over and over again to these children who seemed bored out of their minds. Ira Shor would agree that the students should create or incorporate their own ideas into the syllabus and not be taught through a system to raise test scores. These students had no way of questioning anything, they were taught to listen along rather than to be curious. It's obvious to me these kids are curious, for example when I first walked in they immediately asked who I was. Children hold qualities of questioning and when the school is failing to allow it, it causes for memorization and not learning. The teacher told me the only way to keep their attention is what she called "cookie time". This was used so that depending on how much they completed for that day, if enough, they could receive a cookie before they left. I realized how although the teacher had no control on how she could teach she at least created a reward for the students to work for. Hopefully this particular teacher could change the way she taught like Shor stated, by taking the students opinions into account.

After I had left the school I was ready to go back. I want to hopefully help these children and the teacher as much as possible. I was so excited when a received an email the next day from the teacher telling me that the children asked when I was coming back. That gave me more encouragement to get back there! Can't wait for next Thursday!
~Alysa

my first blog

Finally got this thing up and running seeing as I haven't done a blog in so many years. Well anyways I'm Alysa and I'm eighteen years old, I work all the time so I don't know why I decided to live on campus at RIC, dumb idea. Granted I do love my suite mates which does make it better but it's really not worth it when I'm home every weekend. I love running even though it's pain to make the effort but definitely worth it when I'm done which makes me excited for this semester with hopefully lots of ZUMBA classes haha. Definitely one of the best things I found at RIC. Well I think I'm done with this blog my next one will be when I come back from my first day tutoring at an elementary school, can't wait!
Talk to you all later! :)